Membrane-like food products have heretofore been known. For example, traditionally "yuba (dried bean curds)", and, recently, edible soybean protein films and the like have been known.
"Yuba" has flexible mouthfeel. However, it has heavy mouthfeel and lacks lightness. Further, its stability during storage is not so good. This is partly resulted from its dense structure containing oil.
Further, there have been known food products having membrane-like structures prepared by extrusion. Among products prepared by using a twin-screw extruder, there are laminated products having good feeling of mastication. However, they lack flexibility and lightness. For example, Japanese Patent Application No. 60-202679 discloses a membrane-like food product prepared by using a twin-screw extruder. The product, however, has less flexible mouthfeel than "yuba", and lacks lightness.
On the other hand, although puffed food products containing starch as their main components have porous structure sections, they do not have bundle of membrane structures which can be peeled off along an extrusion direction almost into coaxial tubes after reconstitution with hot water. In addition, they have such a defect that they may be dissolved upon reconstitution with hot water, while they have light mouthfeel like snack confections when eaten at they are without reconstitution.